Shutting Up Now
by Bimadabomi
Summary: Maybe she didn't say it on the couch that night, but the next night is full of possibility. LL postep for 5.19.


Okay, so after watching the last Luke/Lorelai scene of 5.19, "But I'm a Gilmore," this just had to be written. Now I'm sure that someone else is also going to do a post-ep Luke Lorelai fic like this and that it will be 100 times better and I'll be ashamed I ever wrote this (actually, I hope so, because I'd like to read that:P) but I'm still writing anyway. It's in my head, nothing I can do now! Heh.

This is for everyone who thought the ILYs were coming on that couch. ;) Which is just about everyone I've talked to. ASP is having the last laugh on that one. ;)

Disclaimer-- I don't own any of them, sadly. :(

Lorelai frowned at the phone after she hung up with Rory. She didn't like this thing Rory had gotten herself into with Logan-- but what could she do? She couldn't do anything more than what she had already done by voicing her opinion. What else was there to do? Turn into _her_ mother and plot to break Rory and Logan up behind their backs? Umm, pass.

She sighed and carefully walked back into the living room. She stopped at the doorway and smiled when she saw Luke still in the same position on the couch, clearly asleep by now. She couldn't help but smile. Poor Luke. So exhausted, and for what? For her.

She walked over to the couch and took her place next to Luke again.

"Luke," she whispered quietly, gently shaking his shoulder. "Luke," she repeated louder, shaking him a little harder.

"What?" he mumbled.

"Let's go upstairs," she said. He mumbled something and settled back down into the couch. "You can't sleep on the couch all night," she said, "it's not comfortable and you're tired. And then what? I'm gonna sleep upstairs alone while you're down here? I don't think so. Come on," she said, giving his arm a squeeze. He shifted, and she pulled him to his feet.

"I only strained it twice," he said sleepily.

Lorelai chuckled quietly. "I know, Honey, I know."

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After she had forced Luke to get into bed-- apparently she was playing mom to Rory, Paris, Kirk, Sookie, Jackson _and_ Luke these days, she got ready for bed herself. She settled down next to him, careful not to wake him up, though she was pretty sure he was dead to the world by now. She glanced over at him and couldn't help but smile.

She loved having him here.

And she had almost said _it._ She knew that this was getting to the point of utter ridiculousness. They had almost been together a _year_, counting the breakup and the months he was in Maine at the beginning of their relationship. It had been almost a year since he had kissed her on the porch of the Dragonfly, and still she hadn't said it. She knew she felt it, she knew he felt it, and she knew they both knew the other felt it. And still, for some reason, she couldn't get the darn three words out. Three words. Eight letters. Only two consonants if Y was acting as a vowel, and even if it wasn't, then only _three_ consonants. Sometimes she told herself that she was waiting for him to say it first, but she knew that was stupid because she was pretty sure he knew her and how tough it was for her and therefore, he was waiting for her.

And she had almost said it on the couch before Rory had called. She had wanted to, God, had she wanted to. After everything he had done for her, dropping everything at the diner to come to her rescue, putting up with Sookie not trusting his cooking, and that was just one instance. What about everything he had done over the past nine years? She couldn't even list it all.

But right when she started to just say it, right after she had worked up the courage, she had stopped because she wondered if he'd get that it wasn't just coming from how thankful she was for helping at the inn. She didn't want him to think that she was so happy he had bailed her out of a mess, once again, that it was a knee jerk reaction, something she would say to anyone who helped her out of a mess.

She sighed and let her gaze move from the ceiling back to Luke. What day was it? She was never aware of when Fridays passed anymore, what without the infamous Friday night dinners she had gotten used to for five years off her agenda. She wondered what her parents would have thought if Rory asked to get out of a Friday night dinner to go to dinner with Logan's family. They probably would have been thrilled about that; probably the only time they ever happily let a Friday night dinner slide. She wondered if her mother still expected her to come back to dinner. Rory hadn't said anything about her mother to Lorelai, and Lorelai hadn't spoken to her mother-. or her father- since she had yelled at her at Luke's.

She grumbled as she realized she was back to thinking about Logan and Rory and Logan and Rory together, with the added bonus of also thinking about her mother. _Don't form opinions of Logan when you don't even know him_ she reminded herself, glancing over at Luke. _That's exactly what your mother did to Luke and you know how wrong she was._

Desperate to get her mind to stop thinking about Logan, she rolled over onto her stomach and closed her eyes. Sleeping would be good. Maybe everything would be clear in the morning. Logan and Rory and I love yous... maybe the answers would come to her in her dreams.

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She awoke the next morning to Luke staring at her.

"What?" she asked, opening one eye to peek at him. He was already fully dressed and out of bed, standing next to her and staring at her.

"Just wondering if you're planning on getting up today," he asked.

"Huh?" she asked, still too groggy to figure out what he was asking.

"It's almost noon," he told her, holding up her clock so she could see it. "Now I know you sleep late, but..."

"Noon?" she asked. "What are you doing here?" she asked, "what about the diner?"

"Caesar's got it," he said.

"After you spent two days at the inn? Didn't he have it then, too?"

"Well, yesterday when we didn't know if you'd find a replacement for Sookie I told him to count on having it today again, too, and he said it was no problem. Theoretically I could have gone in, but Lane is there and I was way too tired last night to even think about waking up today."

She grinned at him. "Ah. Playing hooky _with me_, huh?"

"Not with you," he countered, "because you're sleeping the day away here."

"Well duh, Luke, everyone knows that when you play hooky with your girlfriend you're supposed to spend the day in bed."

He rolled his eyes. "Get up."

"You're bossy today."

"If you don't get up now you're still going to be bouncing off the walls at 2 am and I'm not going to deal with that again."

She shot him a mischievous smile. "Hey, last time that happened I thought we put my extra energy into a pretty enjoyable activity for you."

"Up," he demanded.

"We have a strange relationship. I have to force you into bed and you have to force me out." She pretended to be annoyed, but sat up in her bed and threw the covers off herself, smoothing down her hair sure that it was probably sticking in every possible direction.

"Rory called," he added.

Lorelai looked up in surprise. "What?" she asked.

"She left you a message," he said.

"What did she say?" he asked.

He shrugged. "Something about Logan and she wants you to call her."

Lorelai sighed. "Ugh."

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"Nothing. Just... this whole Logan thing."

"Have you still not talked to her about it?"

"No. I did. At least I think I did. She called last night, she was the one who called when you were halfway to dreamland on the couch. And she was all upset about how her dinner with Logan's parents went. Then he showed up at her door and apologized for how he reacted and they went out to get something to eat. They're just... so up and down. I don't know, none of my business, I know, but I don't like it and she knows it and she's happy and I feel bad not being comfortable with it and... I don't know."

"She's twenty," he reminded her. "She's going to make mistakes. And if Logan's a mistake, then she needs to make it so she can learn. And if he's _not_ a mistake then you'll come around to him."

"Yeah. I guess. I just... I don't know. I just don't feel good about it and I don't like feeling that way. And Rory and I are growing apart and I don't like that either."

He sat down next to her on the bed and kissed her on the head. "Everything will work out. You'll see."

She smiled at him and again, she wanted to say it. Was this an appropriate moment? God, she was sick of analyzing every moment that she wanted to tell him that she loved him. She should have said it a long time ago, and then by now she could say it whenever the hell she felt like it, not having to worry if the moment was appropriate of not for the _first_ saying. So much for everything Rory and Logan and I love you related being resolved in her dreams.

"Thanks," she said quietly.

He nodded and patted her on the shoulder.

"Luke?"

"Yeah."

"Thank you for everything. At the inn, the past two days, I mean.."

"Anytime."

"And not just the past two days, that sounded wrong when it came out. Thank you for everything at the inn in general. The past two days, the money, the repairs, the support."

"You're welcome," he told her.

"And not just the inn. Everything in the past nine years. Thanks."

He gave her a curious look. "Not a problem."

"Luke?" she asked again.

"What?" he asked patiently.

"Come back to bed."

"I just got up," he reminded her.

She smiled at his obliviousness. "Not to sleep, silly. I never did get to properly thank you for your help at the inn. And I still have all those dirty cooking jokes I need to put to use," she reminded him, taking his hands and attempting to tug him towards her.

"You have dirty everything jokes. I'd think you could survive holding back a few."

"Yeah, but I can never use them at work. Stupid Michel is still on a sexual harassment kick. He's on the lookout for that kind of stuff. Thought I could get away with sexually harassing you, though," she said with a teasing smile. She let go of his hands, as she was getting nowhere with the tugging, and took matters into her own hands, literally, as put her hands around his neck and started to lean in to kiss him when she pulled away. "Wait!"

"What?"

"Morning breath."

He rolled his eyes. "I don't care."

"You will," she said. She reached into the drawer next to her bed and pulled out the tic tac case and popped one in her mouth. "Always smart to keep those there," she added.

"Smart," he agreed absentmindedly before leaning in to kiss her, applying just enough weight to force her down onto the bed. She giggled as she was taken aback by the action. She guessed he had gotten the message when she had been tugging on his hands.

"You speak Spanish," she suddenly stated out of nowhere.

"A little," he said, "and why are we talking about this now?"

"You speak a lot and you speak it well," she said, "and we're talking about it because it's sexy."

"Speaking Spanish is sexy?" he asked with a confused frown.

"_God_, yes," she said with a grin. "Say something in Spanish," she added.

"If you're looking for something dirty in Spanish you're out of luck because I don't know anything."

"I don't care. Say anything. I don't know what it means anyway. It all sounds hot."

"Lorelai..."

"That's not Spanish. I recognize that word."

He rolled his eyes and knew he would have to give in sooner or later, may as well be now. "Ponga el pato en el horno," he said the first thing that came to him, probably due to the days at the inn.

She giggled against his lips and kissed him. She couldn't help it and broke the kiss. "What did you say?" she asked.

He groaned. "I thought it didn't matter?"

"Yeah but now I'm curious," she whined.

"Put the duck in the oven," he told her. She giggled and he shrugged. "I told you I don't know a lot. Most of it's all food related," he explained, placing stray kisses behind her ear.

"That _is _dirty," she decided, tilting her head so that he could have more access. "And yes, please do," she added with a smirk. He moved back to her mouth and kissed her again. When the kiss broke this time, she only looked at him seriously. "Okay, shutting up now."

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"You're not gonna fall asleep on me this time, are you?" Lorelai asked as she and Luke walked into the living room.

"Depends on what movie you pick," Luke replied with a smirk. She rolled her eyes at his lack of enthusiasm, then stared at the movie collection in front of her.

"I don't feel like any of these," she said. "Let's just watch TV."

"No movie of interest?" he raised his eyebrows in shock. "What's next, no coffee?"

She gasped. "Never!" _Not until I'm pregnant, anyway_, she thought._ Whoa_, she realized. _Where did that come from?_

He chuckled. "Don't know what I was thinking." She smiled and grabbed his hand and pulled him down to the couch with her.

"What do you want to watch?" she asked, settling herself right next to him and resting her head on his shoulder.

"I don't care."

"Pick something."

"I don't care."

"Fine," she gave in, flipping the channel. "Oh! Spanish soap opera!"

He rolled his eyes. "Great."

"Hey!" realization dawned on her. "You speak Spanish. You understand what they're saying!"

"You've got to get past this Spanish obsession."

She laughed softly into his chest. She looked back at the TV for a moment. Here they were, again. On the couch, again. He was awake this time. She wanted to say it, again. There was absolutely no reason why she shouldn't say it this time. Or was there?

"Luke?" she asked, pulling away from him slightly so she could look up at him.

"Yeah," he responded absentmindedly, still letting his fingers brush her arm.

"Spanish or English?"

He frowned and got that look on his face that said he had no idea what she was talking about. Ah, yes, she was used to that face, but she loved it. "What?" he asked.

"I have something to say. Do you want to hear it in Spanish or in English?"

"Dear God, English, please," he said, clearly afraid of her Spanish speaking skills. She sat up a little more so she could look him in the eyes.

"Luke..."

"Hmm?" he asked, still contentedly stroking her arm lightly.

"I love you."

His eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't been expecting that. A mini essay on why Spanish soap operas were better than soap operas in English, yes. That... no. "I should have said it a looong time ago, I know," she continued. "But... well it's just... I--" He put his finger to her lips to stop her.

"I should've picked Spanish," he said, "I don't think you know how to babble in Spanish."

She looked at him, relieved that he had shut her up, and gave him a nervous little laugh. He slowly removed his finger from her lips. "I love you too. God, I've loved you for... ever."

The shy smile she had sported suddenly morphed into a huge grin. "Really?"

He returned the grin. "Really."

"How long is 'ever'?" she asked, unable to let it go in a typical Lorelai fashion.

"I don't know," he said, "I don't know when I fell in love with you, but it was long before we started dating. Maybe I only realized it recently, but..."

She nodded. "I understand that," she agreed. "I _totally_ understand that," she added, clearly telling him that the same thing went for her. "I wanted to say it so many times," she added. "But then I worried it was the wrong moment or it would be taken wrong. Like in Doose's when we broke up, I thought you'd think it was just my attempt to get you to get you to stay in the relationship. Like last night when you were falling asleep on the couch I thought you would think it was just because you bailed me out at the inn, or like right after we got back together and I thought you'd think it was just because I was trying to prove to you that I was really 'all in' this time."

"I wouldn't have thought that." He paused. "Do you really know how to say it in Spanish?" he asked.

She shrugged and gave him an innocent smile. "Sorry, buddy, you picked English. Guess you'll never know now."

He shook his head at her, but couldn't help but smile anyway. He pulled her to him and kissed her deeply. When he pulled away, she smiled at him again.

"Hey, let's forget the TV."

"Forget the TV?" he asked her, pretending to be surprised, placing kisses down her neck.

"Yeah," she said, her mind starting to forget what she was about to say and focusing on where he was kissing her. "Yeah..." she repeated, trying to figure it out, but unable to think of anything other than the fact that he was kissing her lower and lower and he was now kissing her chest.

"But the Spanish soap opera," he joked, still placing kisses across her chest and across the neckline of her t-shirt.

"You can be my Spanish soap opera," she reminded him.

He didn't respond, but continued to kiss her, back up to the other side of her neck and up to her ear. "Te amo," he whispered into her ear and then placing a kiss beneath it.

She grinned. "I love you too."

He stopped his kisses momentarily to look at her. "So you did know."

She laughed softly, kissing him on the lips before taking his hands and pulling him up off the couch with her. "Yeah. I looked up some particular phrases. The internet is a brilliant invention, my friend," she added.

"I'm afraid to know what else you looked up," he said as she started to walk backwards to the stairs, still pulling him with her. "Probably 'more coffee' and 'pancakes with a side of bacon,'" he mumbled.

"Nooo," she corrected him, "but good idea, thanks. Let's just say that I looked up some phrases that, when uttered at the right moment, might just get you to understand why Spanish is _sexy_."

"You really do have a problem."

"I have lots of problems," she reminded him.

"I know."

"And you're stuck with me."

"I know."

"And therefore, by default, you have lots of problems."

"Believe me, _I know_," he teased.

"Hey," she said. "I don't--" she started to protest, but was cut off by Luke's lips taking over her own and backing her up the steps.

"Shutting up now," she said again, giggling as he kissed her again and guided her the rest of the way up the stairs.

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The End!

Can you tell I was intrigued by SpanishSpeaking!Luke? Haha. Actually, when they were watching TV, Spanish soap opera just came to me as something Lorelai would stop to watch and then the whole Spanish connection clicked again and I just kept going with it. Ah, well. I know everyone loved Spanish!Luke, so I doubt many are complaining. The whole idea that he speaks Spanish had to be played with somewhere.

By the time I got this done, **ocdwithlhg** had also written a post-ep for 5.19 with a bit of the same idea, so make sure you read hers, too (and I hope they weren't too similar!) because she's awesome.


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